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Julia McKenzie 

There have been recent developments in the framing of bias in evaluation, with several evaluation theorists and practitioners calling for a broader understanding of this concept. Biases that have been widely discussed in the evaluation literature include researcher bias, selection bias, instrument bias, stakeholder bias and conflict of interest. However, there are also biases in how we receive and process information in the brain. It is these cognitive biases that have received recent attention.

Cognitive bias and how we are feeling at any given moment can filter how we see the world around us and how we make decisions. For example, research shows that on average people have a greater emotional response to losing than to winning, and therefore take extra effort to avoid having the emotional response associated with loss. Implicit biases such as this can influence evaluation practice, what information an evaluator might seek and what they might unconsciously ignore. This has implications for how evaluators collect and analyse information, the ethical practices of evaluators and how information is conveyed to others.

In this session I will briefly outline recent developments on this topic and provide practical suggestions on how to address bias. I will draw on recent developments in practice theory and psychology to foster further discussion on this subject.